'Sexting' incident reported at Upstate New York school

Saturday

A nude photo of a high school student that was circulated via cell phone to hundreds of students in the past week has police investigating a possible child pornography case.

A nude photo of a Perry Junior High School student that was circulated via cell phone to hundreds of students has local police investigating a possible child pornography case.

The incident began at a party during winter break in which a teenage boy took a picture exposing himself and sent it to a female classmate. She then forwarded the picture, which was then forwarded on to more students and on to an estimated 300 or more students, school officials said.

Perry Junior High School Dean of Students Sherry Coleman said school officials began investigating the incident Tuesday after receiving a call from a concerned parent.

An estimated 15 cell phones were confiscated, and while no charges are expected in that incident, a phone searched during the investigation found more pictures of a nude or seminude female student from another school district.

“Because of the severity of the pictures and also because it was of a student outside the district, it was turned over to police,” Coleman said.

New Hartford Police Investigator Richard Salamone began investigating the incident involving the student from outside the New Hartford district Friday morning. He said he did not have any more details on it.

Coleman said the school district is not filing charges or disciplining any students in the case of the Perry student partially because so many people were involved in disseminating the photo.
Coleman said the district talked to about 40 students who had disseminated or received the photo.

“Some got it and deleted it, some sent it and deleted it and some asked for it to be sent to them,” Coleman said. “A whole week went by before anybody reported it.”

She said the student who took the photo did not fully realize the consequences.

“He was duped,” Coleman said. “He made a bad decision, and now he is being harassed and is embarrassed.”

Police say it's a disturbing new trend in teenage flirting in which someone takes a nude or semi-nude photo from a cell phone and sends it via text messaging. The trend is often dubbed “sexting.”

Coleman said this was not the first instance of sexting at the school.

“We've been dealing with this same issue for years,” Coleman said. “This particular incident was far more wide spread than what we normally see.”

Back in 2007, Coleman said she documented sexting incidents at the school that included photos of someone getting out of the shower, a video of two teen girls making out and a teen demonstrating a sexual act with props.

Superintendent Robert Nole said that while this latest incident did not happen at school, it did interfere with the school setting.

“We're also concerned with individuals producing pictures that could put themselves in a precarious situation,” he said.

The school has scheduled a forum Monday at the school for students to discuss cell phone safety and the legal repercussions of sexting, which could include felony charges.

“They need to know that any more cases will be turned over to the police,” Coleman said.

In Pennsylvania, six teens ages 14 to 17 face child pornography charges for sexting each other.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy estimates one of every five teens has “electronically sent, or posted online, nude or seminude pictures or video of themselves.”

“Sexting is very prevalent now,” said Salamone, who investigated cases at the Child Advocacy Center while with the New Hartford Police. “It's not just in our schools but throughout the country. It's primarily junior high and high school students, but there are some cases of elementary students sexting.”

He said the youth don't perceive the act as doing anything wrong.

“And parents, 99 percent of the time, are clueless,” he said.

Coleman said parents will be sent more information regarding the incident and what they can do to protect their children in the school's regular Perrygram newsletter.

Cheryl Allen, a parent of an eighth-grader, said she had heard there had been an incident but did not know the details. Allen said her son does have a cell phone, and she is using the incident as a teachable moment.

“I hope parents take the opportunity to talk about appropriate use and inappropriate use and the consequences that come with inappropriate use,” she said. “… It's hard for us to keep ahead of technology.”

Observer-Dispatch

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